Slowly opening her legs, An Qi walked to An Ya's side, her knees softening, and she heavily knelt on the ground with a thump.
Her lowered eyelids perfectly concealed the trace of cold light deep within her eyes that had nothing to do with sorrow, and when she raised her gaze once more, tears were already overflowing her embankments, pitiable to the extreme.
"Sister... I'm sorry..."
An Qi's voice was hoarse, tears heavily slamming down, choking her so she could barely catch her breath, and she said, "I really didn't know... didn't know why Zi turned into that... Why he would do such a heaven-defying thing... I'm sorry, Sister, I'm truly sorry..."
Hearing this familiar yet desolate voice, An Ya's originally stone-rigid body suddenly violently trembled.
She slowly turned her head, her hollow, terribly red and swollen eyes staring fixedly at the biological younger sister before her who was likewise clad in mourning white.
There was neither the angry questioning she had anticipated, nor a bone-deep hatred slap.
Before the immense grief, all resentment seemed to have been drained of its strength.
"An Qi..."
An Ya cried out desolately, suddenly lunging forward, tightly hugging An Qi's frail shoulders, burying her head deeply into her younger sister's neck, and wailing with despair as she tore at her throat, "Why... why did something like this happen!"
An Qi backhandedly and tightly hugged An Ya back, burying her face in her elder sister's shoulder, scalding tears wantonly soaking An Ya's plain white mourning clothes.
"I'm sorry... Sister, I'm truly sorry..." An Qi sobbed uncontrollably, saying with self-reproach, "If I could have discovered Zi's wrongness a bit earlier... If I could have stopped him... Yinzhu wouldn't have..."
Hearing her younger sister's self-reproaching and bitter words, tears once again broke through their embankments in An